Fans line up around the stadium to redeem their ticket vouchers for the 2012 season. March 6 was the first day that the vouchers could be redeemed for actual game tickets.

Fans waited all day long Tuesday in the windy chill, hoping to get to the front of the line at Angel Stadium and exchange their multi-plan vouchers for game tickets. Many went home disappointed, told to come back later,

Cindi Randles of Tustin getting a wristband placing her in the middle of the pack to receive her tickets, even though she arrived at 8:30 a.m., a half hour before the box office opened. Randle came with a list from her husband of games he wanted to attend

Some 1,800 fans turned out at Angel Stadium March 6 to redeem their 2012 ticket vouchers

Angel Stadium in Anaheim is a hive of activity as the team readies for the 2012 season. Trees were being trimmed Tuesday in preparation for the April opening day.

Fans arriving at Angel Stadium early Tuesday expecting to redeem their ticket vouchers quickly. Instead, many hunkered down for an all-day wait or gave up and went home

Fans waiting in line to redeem ticket vouchers Tuesday at Angel Stadium for the 2012 season

This white wristband put Cindi Randles of Tustin in the middle of the pack, meaning she would wait for several hours for the right to redeem her ticket vouchers Tuesday, March 6, 2012, the first day they became available

Fans stand at the box office after waiting for hours for the chance to redeem their ticket vouchers for the upcoming 2012 season. Tuesday, March 6, 2012 was the first day to redeem multiplan ticket vouchers and thousands were redeemed.

Fans purchased ticket vouchers like these at a discount earlier and March 6 was the first day of 2012 they could be redeemed. Angels staff were unprepared for the response.

Art Hernandez of Brea arrived at Angel Stadium at 8 a.m. and left empty-handed in the late afternoon, unable to complete his ticket purchase due to crowds. "Arte Moreno says he's a family man but this doesn't seem like it," Hernandez said.

Angels staff stopped handing out wristbands early in the day, and began telling some people with wristbands to go home as early as noon.

A chill wind and clouds, along with hours-long waits, brought grumbles from fans, complaining that not enough ticket windows were open, and the process should have been speedier and better organized.

Since each fan planned to redeem vouchers for numerous games, transactions were slow and lengthy.

“Why did they only have two ticket windows open at 9 a.m.?” asked Art Hernandez of Brea, who described himself as a “die-hard Angels fan.” He ended up going home empty-handed at the end of the day, after his wristband numbers were never called.

Angels staff said they were not expecting such a large turnout. On the voucher redemption day last season, people waited only a few minutes in line.

“In past years, there hasn’t been much of a turnout,” Angels media relations intern Matt Birch said Tuesday afternoon. “They were not expecting much of a crowd.”

Angels staff began handing out some 1,800 wristbands at 6:30 a.m. that would enable fans to trade pre-purchased vouchers for tickets to upcoming games for the 2012 season.

By noon, several hundred people were lined up halfway around the stadium waiting for their turn to exchange multi-ticket plan vouchers for the chance to see a revitalized Angels lineup on the diamond starting in April.

The box office did not open until 9 a.m. and while more ticket windows opened throughout the morning, eventually only seven windows were open for thousands of tickets to be sold, leaving some fans to grumble that the stadium should have been more prepared.

While fans were polite and orderly, they complained that the Angels organization should have taken steps after they saw what happened Saturday.

Part of Tuesday’s unexpected crowd may have been caused by a letter that went out to voucher holders, warning that ticket availability was limited and they should not expect to be able to come to the ballpark on the day of the game and obtain tickets.

The letter highlighted today’s first on-sale date, which reminded ardent fans that they should come down to Anaheim and get their tickets while there was still some selection.

Angels staff handed out green, white and yellow wristbands and planned to serve fans in that order.

By noon, they were already beginning to tell people to come back Wednesday, and stopped handing out wristbands. Even people who had wristbands were told by late afternoon to come back the following morning.

By late afternoon, an Anaheim motorcycle police officer sat astride his machine, surveying the grumbling but mellow crowd, apparently called in case the fan’s griping escalated to something more serious.

Troy Hoffman, an Orange County native who said he drove all the way from Desert Hot Springs, was among those who went home disappointed.

“I have a daughter on life support so we have to arrange nursing for her, and now I have to come back,” Hoffman said. “It isn’t right.”

Marla Jo Fisher was a workaholic hard news reporter before she adopted two children from foster care at age 46, picked up a scruffy dog along the way and somehow managed to keep them all alive, at least so far. She now writes the Frumpy Middle-Age Mom humor column that appears in the Orange County Register weekly. Due to her status as the cheapest person alive, she also writes about deals and bargains for the Register, including her Cheapo Travel column which also runs in newspapers around the country. When she's not having a nervous breakdown, she's usually traveling somewhere cheaply and writing about it.

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